Arts campers at Upper Merion Area High School stage Alice in Wonderland Jr.'

Dress rehearsal for Consortium of the Arts’ production of “Alice in Wonderland Jr.” gets underway at Upper Merion Area High School, the morning before the premiere Wednesday, July 23, 2014. Photo by Brendan Wills/Times Herald Staff.

UPPER MERION — Five weeks ago, a curious white rabbit with a pocket-watch was spotted in the Upper Merion Area School District. The rabbit was in a hurry because he was late for his first day at the 2014 Consortium for the Arts summer camp.

Following the rabbit down the corridors of Upper Merion Area High School beginning in June, 112 students from the Colonial, Norristown Area, and Upper Merion Area school districts entered a world of imagination, populated by a cast of teachers and experts dedicated to awakening their inner artist.

For those five weeks, students entering grades five to 12 shaped clay, melody, comics, and more to fit their vision. These young artists were given the option to take classes in musical theater, theater development, creative writing, art, sculpture, band and orchestra. Each student took two classes, unless enrolled in musical theater, in which case they turned their entire focus to the stage.

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The last week of camp was the culmination of a summer full of hard work. On Tuesday, the consortium held a band and orchestra concert, where, in addition to rehearsed pieces, students were allowed an unrehearsed jam session.

“They stayed in tempo beautifully,” said Kate Sellers, a 2014 Plymouth Whitemarsh High School graduate and the camp’s assistant musical instructor, regarding the unrehearsed pieces.

In addition, for the last week of camp, a gallery was erected in the high school’s hallways that displayed all forms of visual and literary art created at camp, and Wednesday nights, the White Rabbit was on time for being out of time, with a repeat engagement scheduled for Thursday.

Under the direction of Elena Camp, the musical theater class is staging the musical “Alice in Wonderland Jr.” Camp, a former camper herself who has worked as the theater’s assistant director for the past five years, was amazed at the speed with which her students were able to pull together such high-quality production.

“Five weeks is not a lot of time even for professional actors to put together a production,” Camp said with the enthusiasm of the Mad Hatter, noting that auditions took up a good portion of the first week. “It’s amazing we’ve been able to do it this fast with these results.”

Each of the 44 musical theater students was given a named role and costume based on of a character from the Lewis Carroll canon. The younger students enrolled in the theater development class, most of whom aim to become a full-fledged musical theater students, were incorporated into the opening scene and given the opportunity to sing two unrelated songs from popular musicals, Camp said.

The camp, usually held at the middle school, was moved to the high school this summer, according to camp Director Cheryl Tepe, who has also worked at the camp for a number of years, but who took over as director for the first time this year.

“We really appreciate how nice everyone has been,” Tepe said about the high school faculty, which has put up with Mad Hatter antics and loud singing for five weeks. Additionally, Tepe was grateful that the high school offered laptops for the creative writing class that was led by Darcy Schneider, a teacher in the Radnor School District.

“We dabbled in a bunch of genres,” Schneider said, smiling as widely as the Cheshire Cat. “Personally I love reading the historical fiction. It was really nice to try something different.

“I told them they can use real life people or they can completely create a character,” Schneider continued, citing stories about Cleopatra set in ancient times, stories about the Titanic, and stories as recent as the New Year in 2000. “They came up with things I would never think of.”

Matt Williams and Eric Velazquez, respectively the art and sculpture teachers, took a similar approach offering multiples mediums for the students to try.

Williams, a University of the Arts graduate who formerly taught in the Philadelphia School District, broke the class up into two halves. During the first half, students would receive a lesson and try their hand at a different style. During the second, students worked on a long-term project where they created either a comic or children’s book.

“A lot of younger students don’t have the concept of continually working on a piece of art,” Williams said about the importance of composing the illustrated books. “They had to put in multiple sessions and learn how much work art really takes. It was good to learn about that process even if they got frustrated.”

Velazquez, a special education aide in the North Penn School District who is certified to teach art, let the students see every step of firing a ceramic piece in the kiln from greenware to glazing, but also let students try their hand at creating plaster masks and other forms.

“For the plaster masks, I had them work in little groups, which adds an element of collaboration they might not get during the school year,” Velazquez said, describing how the kids bounced ideas off of each other and discussed their techniques. “Without being graded, they can experiment.”

The camp would not have been such a success without the help of the parents who were actively involved according to Tepe.

“All of the parents have been great helping to sell snacks and bringing in cookies for the lunch break,” Tepe said.

“Alice in Wonderland Jr.” is scheduled for performance Wednesday and Thursday nights at Upper Merion Area High School at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at the door starting at 6:30 p.m. and cost $10 for adults and $5 for children and senior citizens. Doors open at 7:30.